F-84F Thunderstreak History

Republic Aviation jumped into the jet age with the development of the P-84 "Thunder" Jet series (which kept with the "Thunder" naming theme that brought fame to Republic beginning with the Thunderbolt of WWII). The original series of aircraft had straight wings (XP-84, YP-84, XP-84A, P-84B, P84C which was later changed to F84C, D, E, and G). The first swept wing version was a modified F-84E fuselage which was designated the YF-84F. The production version was designated the F-84F Thunderstreak.

The F-84 series of aircraft made large contributions to military aviation during the 1950’s participating in numerous testing programs. One such program is the FICON program as shown below. The goal was to have the short range fighters carried by long range bombers for protection. The fighters could be released for combat and later "retrieved".

Our F-84F Thunderstreak 52-6475 was built by Republic Aviation on September 13, 1954 and served with the following units: